COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Sixteen intercollegiate sport programs at the University of Maryland maintained or improved their multiyear APR scores in the newest 2012-2013 APP report as announced by the NCAA Wednesday while thirteen teams earned multiyear Academic Progress Rates (APR) at or above 970.

Football earned a multiyear score of 950 and single-year APR score of 977. Both marks are program-bests since the APR’s inception in 2003. Football’s multi-year score of 950 shows marked improvement from last year’s score of 937. The football program has made significant strides since 2009-10 when the multiyear was 922, single year was 905, and the program was assessed a contemporaneous penalty losing three scholarships.

Women’s basketball and men’s basketball earned multiyear rates of 959 and 953, respectively. Both programs earned perfect single-year APR scores of 1000 for the 2012-13 academic year as noted in the 2012-2013 APP report. This marks the men’s basketball program’s first perfect single-year score. Perhaps more impressive is that eighteen of 20 men’s basketball student-athletes, who have exhausted their eligibility, have graduated since the 2006-07 season.

The field hockey and women's golf teams both earned perfect multiyear scores of 1000. Both teams were nationally recognized by the NCAA last week, placing amongst the top 10 percent of programs in their respective sports.

"We are proud of the hard work and dedication our student-athletes have displayed in the classroom,” said director of athletics Kevin Anderson. “Our commitment is to provide a culture where academic success is at the forefront of the student-athlete experience. We will continue to emphasize the importance of preparing student-athletes for productive, successful lives after Maryland.”

The newly released multiyear APR scores are comprised of data submitted for 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. The APR index was developed by the NCAA to provide a "real time" snapshot on a semester-by-semester basis in order to measure the eligibility and retention of student-athletes in all Division I institutions. The APR is part of a larger package of initiatives, the NCAA Academic Performance Program, which was mandated by the NCAA Board of Directors to improve the academic performance of athletic teams.

In calculating the APR, all student-athletes receiving athletics financial aid are considered "counters" and each semester receive one point for retention/graduation and one point for meeting NCAA and University of Maryland eligibility standards for competition. The maximum number of APR points a student-athlete can earn in an academic year is four (2 in the fall semester and 2 in the spring semester). A team's APR is the total number of eligibility/retention points earned divided by the maximum number of points possible. This APR number is then multiplied by 1000. (For example, a team which receives 94 percent of all possible points would have a team APR of 940.)